La'er Mountain, Famous in Qing History
In Fenghuang, Xiangxi, there is a famous mountain called La'er Mountain. Its main peak, Shuzipo, is 1,117 meters above sea level, and the closely adjacent Little La'er Mountain is 1,050 meters above sea level. The La'er Mountain area, formed mainly by Big and Little La'er Mountains, also contains dozens of peaks of various sizes, including Tianxing Mountain, Bagong Mountain, and Tunliang Mountain. The La'er Mountain area has beautiful scenery and rich mineral resources, and it also abounds in food crops such as corn, rice, and sweet potatoes. The Miao people living in this area have for generations...
In Fenghuang, Xiangxi, there is a famous mountain called La'er Mountain. Its main peak, Shuzipo, is 1,117 meters above sea level, and the closely adjacent Little La'er Mountain is 1,050 meters above sea level. The La'er Mountain area, formed mainly by Big and Little La'er Mountains, also contains dozens of peaks of various sizes, including Tianxing Mountain, Bagong Mountain, and Tunliang Mountain.
The La'er Mountain area has beautiful scenery and rich mineral resources, and it also abounds in food crops such as corn, rice, and sweet potatoes. The Miao people living in this area have for generations led a peaceful and tranquil life of self-sufficiency. But by the 60th year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, a great Miao uprising that shocked the imperial court suddenly broke out in the La'er Mountain area. Tracing the main cause of this uprising back to its source, it began with a cattle-rustling case in Goubu Village at the foot of La'er Mountain. It was in late April of the 52nd year of Qianlong. The garrison commander at Zhen'gan, Yin Dexi, in order to track down several cattle rustlers, actually sent more than 1,000 troops and bloodily massacred innocent Miao people in three villages of Goubu. This case immediately aroused the public anger of all the Miao people in the La'er Mountain area. The Miao leaders Shi Liudeng, Shi Sanbao, Wu Tianban, Wu Bayue, Wu Longdeng, and others plotted in secret many times. They agreed to choose the best opportunity to rise in rebellion. In early the first month of the 60th year of Qianlong, these leaders gathered again at Huanggua Village in Yongsui and elected Shi Sanbao as Miao King. They decided to formally rise on the sixth day of the first month and put forward the uprising slogan of "Expel the settlers, restore our former lands." After the meeting, because circumstances changed, Shi Liudeng was the first to rise in Datang, Songtao, and then Shi Sanbao also raised troops early. The rebel army split into several routes and fought the government troops to the death. In Songtao, Shi Liudeng led the Miao army to occupy most of the Songtao area and besieged important towns such as Zhengda, Xiunao, and Songtao for more than a month. In Yongsui, Shi Sanbao led the rebel army in its first battle against the Qing army at Yayou, annihilating more than 1,500 Qing soldiers in two forces led by Yongsui deputy general Isana, subprefect Peng Fengyao, and Zhen'gan garrison commander Ming Antu. In Qianzhou, Wu Bayue led the rebel army to capture Qianzhou city and later commanded the rebel army to win a great victory at Goupa Rock. Facing the Miao army's offensive, the Qing court urgently sent Yun-Gui Governor Fukang'an as commander-in-chief and Helin as deputy commander, unifying more than 100,000 troops from seven provinces to attack the Hunan-Guizhou border. Fukang'an led troops first to Guizhou, brutally suppressed the Miao rebel army in Songtao, then advanced to Yongsui, relieved the danger to Yongsui subprefecture city, and broke through Shi Sanbao's stronghold at Huanggua Village. At this time, another Miao leader, Wu Tianban, relying on the advantageous terrain throughout the La'er Mountain area, continuously attacked the Qing army, inflicting heavy losses on the Qing forces at Gounao Slope, Gupi Mountain, Guchangping, Yangliu Pond, and Niulian Pond, and killing Qing deputy general Dingzhale, guerrilla E'erdeng, brigade commander Ye Panfeng, garrison commanders Nie Shirong and Qi Lin, and other officers. Fukang'an's troops bogged down in the Wuchao River and Suma River area and could not maneuver in the La'er Mountain area. Only by September did he use heavy troops to surround and capture Wu Tianban. During this period, because traitors such as Wu Longdeng appeared among the Miao people, important leaders such as Wu Bayue and Shi Sanbao were captured one after another, causing the rebel army major setbacks. Afterward, Wu Bayue's son Wu Tingyi commanded the rebel army and continued fighting for more than a year, until the end of the first year of Jiaqing, when the Qing army broke through Qianzhou Pinglong, Shi Liudeng died in battle, and Wu Tingyi was betrayed by a traitor, captured, and executed. Only then was this magnificent great uprising finally brought to an end.
Although the great Miao uprising of the Qianlong-Jiaqing period ultimately failed, the blow it dealt to the Qing court was enormous. In this more than two-year campaign of suppression, more than two hundred senior and intermediate Qing officers died, and even Governor Fukang'an and Deputy Commander Helin successively died of illness on the Miao frontier from overwork and infection with miasma. The Qing court spent more than 20 million taels of silver to wipe out the Miao rebel army. It was precisely because of the enormous depletion brought by the Qianlong-Jiaqing uprising that the Qing dynasty under Emperor Qianlong began to decline from its peak, and the Kang-Qian flourishing age came to an end.
To prevent another Miao uprising, after the war the Qing authorities forced the Miao people to rebuild the border wall that had been built in the Ming Dynasty and had already fallen into disuse. This border wall, more than 300 li long, cut off the Miao people throughout the La'er Mountain area. In addition, the court vigorously implemented garrison farming to support troops in the Miao area, and at the same time forcibly confiscated knives, guns, and weapons in the Miao area. These measures greatly strengthened the government's iron-fisted rule over the Miao area.
After the great Miao uprising of the Qianlong-Jiaqing period, the Miao areas along the Hunan-Guizhou border were almost burned, killed, and destroyed by the Qing army. Of the original more than 4,000 villages, only a little more than 1,000 remained afterward. However, Miao resistance did not stop there. In the years that followed, Miao uprisings still occurred from time to time in the Miao frontier every few years, though these uprisings were all suppressed by Qing troops one after another. Today, in the La'er Mountain area, traces of the bloody ancient battlefield can still be seen in many places. Although more than two hundred years have passed, when local Miao people mention the history of the Qianlong-Jiaqing uprising, most can still recount it fluently and have not forgotten it.
Yes, history will not be forgotten. La'er Mountain, famous in Qing history, has left later generations not only treasures and wealth; in fact, every period of history that took place here is deeply thought-provoking and greatly enlightening.